Scope of SEO as a Career Choice: Pros, Cons, Job, Salary & Career growth

Scope of SEO as a Career Choice: Pros, Cons, Job, Salary & Career growth

A lot of people who are in SEO profession we met, entered the field unintentionally. Some way or the other, they stumbled upon this field either because of the sheer thrill or the curiosity.

Don’t you wish if someone would have told you what to expect when you first discovered this fascinating career choice? A lot of professionals started their career not knowing anything about SEO. If you had always taken the Internet and Google for granted, thinking that you would just enter a query, and get a response – Its time for you to dicover what’s beneath it.

What is SEO?

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is the art and science of optimizing your web pages to be found by the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing etc. But why part art, part science?

The science part of SEO deals with technology and all the engineering & technicalities of a website such as code, information architecture & user experience etc.

While Art is all about understanding the business, and the customer behavior and try to positively influence it by adding value to them (in the form of a product, service or a solution) and getting value in return (as leads, sales or branding).

SEO plays a vital role in scaling up sales and accelerating the growth of a completely online business (such as Flipkart.com) or an offline business (such as KFC).

Why SEO industry is growing?

Increased use of search engines to look for information on web year on year.

Large brand advertisers are using SEO actively in India & Internationally.

Traditional or Direct marketers are increasingly adopting SEO.

Growth in the number of local search request with mobile web searches.

Organic SEO listings on Google search result page is more trustworthy than Ads.

Is SEO recognized as a career?

Let us give you some proof that SEO is a great career choice. Just like CCNA, MCP, OCJP and other professional certifications; for Digital Marketing (SEO is a part of Digital Marketing) we have International certifications from Google and Microsoft. That is a clear indication of the demand and future growth of this field. In fact marketing spend is slowly shifting from traditional media such as newspaper, TV, billboards and tele-calling (channels which are interruptive in nature) to Organic SEO and Social Media.

Check some of the profile of SEO executives in senior roles in Top MNCs such as TCS, Cognizant, Deloitte, IBM etc found on Linkedin.com. You may login to your linkedIn profile and search for SEO to see similar results.

Let us explore SEO career opportunities further…

Online industry is growing everyday & SEO is playing a vital role in bringing the visitors to the website and all the companies are spending a huge sum in SEO. It’s one of the most happening areas and there are a good number of job opportunities in the field of SEO.

Every website is looking to procure SEO services for itself either internally or externally depending on its budgets and expertise at hand.

SEO has very bright future for you if you have great analytic skills, and you are dynamic. You need to keep up with the latest trend in the field, have passion for research and be able to formulate clever and creative marketing strategy to beat your competitor, and have an edge over all others.

What skills are needed for a career in SEO?

As I already mentioned SEO is a mix of art and science, so if you come from the science background and are technical skilled, SEO can add a lot of value to your CV by making you get in touch with the practical aspect of the business. SEO helps you grow as a professional and learn new skills related to people management and internet marketing strategy building.

In case you come from the art / commerce background, then SEO may appear a little complicated due to the entire technical skill requirement. The good news is that – most technical aspects of SEO are easy to learn & implement.

SEO is a logical step ahead if you come from marketing or advertising background

The Web has changed the way companies do business, so to some extent today’s marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists, BBA, MBA, Statisticians & passionate writers.

If you look carefully – the Total Is Greater Than The Sum of Its Parts.

A few successful Indian SEO professionals of International Repute

Neil Patel:

Neil Patel started his first company at the age of 16, he has been recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama. He has helped large corporations such as AOL, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard and Viacom to get the most from the web.

Dharmesh Shah:

Dharmesh Shah, is the Chief Technology Officer and Founder of HubSpot. HubSpot is a marketing automation software company and one of the key proponents of “Inbound Marketing”.

SEO Salary & Benefits

In Asian countries like India the average salary for SEO is in between Rs 1.8 lacs – Rs 4 lacs per year for freshers. Like any other discipline; the salary depends on various different factors like No. of years Experience, Employer Type, City, Company Size, Certifications etc.

There are thousands of job openings in the Digital marketing industry and many of the job descriptions include experience in search engine optimization. Need for both entry-level & experienced SEO/SEM professionals will be growing until search engines exist in this world.

SEO Job Categories / Designations

Many of the SEO/SEM firms, particularly the larger firms, have employees in these job categories:

Analytics

Business Management/Development

Link Building

Event Management

Organic Search Engine Optimization

Social Media Analyst

Web Development/Programming

Web Design

Offline Marketing/Advertising

Public Relations/Reputation Management

Paid Search/PPC Management

Web Design

Writing/Blogging

Can I work as a freelancer / self-employed individual?

Here are some tips for those seeking to be self-employed in the SEO field:

By teaming up with web designers of web design firms. Their clients typically require SEO services.

Attend conferences and meet people in the search engine optimization industry

Social networking websites such as LinkedIn.com are good places to meet people who need SEO/SEM services. Explore networking opportunities

SEO Training & Certification

At present, there is no official governing body for the SEO industry and there are no fixed standards to follow. However, several large and influential institutions and organizations have started to offer International certifications for completing SEO courses. Taking these courses can enhance your resume.

Disclosure: Learnpact provides Advanced Diploma in Digital Marketing through in-person classroom program which is accepted and honored by top MNCs and other IT companies in India. Students get 2 certifications – from Learnpact another from Google Inc.

How to get a SEO Job?

The trend in SEO is currently towards Professional Digital Marketing. So Marketing skills and qualifications are far more important.

SEO/SEM Job Boards

For those interested in entering the SEO and SEM fields, there are a variety of interesting careers to choose from.

If you are a entry level (fresher) person, then Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata in East India are good cities to look for openings. Some of the best jobs could be found in LinkedIn.com as most of these jobs are through referrals.

Does Google & other search Engine recognize SEO?

Some Ugly Aspects of SEO field

Being dependent on search engines

In any career; except Government Jobs 🙂 there are many things that are outside of your control. Similarly for SEO its the dependence on Search engines. They frequently change their algorithms and what’s worse – these changes are not made public, so even the greatest SEO masters admit that they make a lot of educated guesses about how things work. It is very discouraging to make everything perfect and then to learn that due to a change in the algorithm, your sites dropped 100 positions down. If you want to have a long-lasting career in SEO field, you must learn to adapt yourself every week. You must be patient as results are not instant between implementation and gratification.

Having no fixed rules

Probably this will change over time but for now the rule is that there are no rules – or at least not written ones. You can work very hard, follow everything that looks like a rule and still success is not coming. Currently you can’t even rely on bringing a search engine to court because of the damages they have done to your business because search engines are not obliged to rank high sites that have made efforts to get optimized. During the 2007 / 08 ; Google PR(PageRank) was everything and link building could guarantee results. You could build ‘x’ number of links with ‘y’ number of PR and most likely predict ‘z’ as the result. but ever since the Google Algorithm (Panda & Penguin) updates have come – the competitive landscape had shifted drastically. A lot of sure-shot methods and formulas are either no longer used in the field, or no longer relevant.

We would love to hear your opinion on “SEO as a Career in 2016”

We would like to know your views on Digital Marketing and it’s growing significance. Would you take up SEO as a career choice? We would like to hear your comments….

Good article, a motivational one. Your SEO practitioner salary summary seems not reliable, because I have been seeing companies who are budgeting upto 8 Lakhs for a SEO manager, I remember rejecting offers from various companies, the least package which I got offered was 4.5 lakhs, with these facts it makes me feel kind of hard to agree with your salary summary. What do you think?

The salaries illustrated in this article are for Freshers / Junior Analysts. For 5+ years experienced Professionals with Certification the salary varies between 6 lacs to 10 lacs a year. Candidates with MBA by their side can expect even more. Refer to the Economic times Article for Exciting career opportunities in Digital Media: http://learnpact.com/7-hot-job-openings-in-online-media-as-per-economic-times/

I am an PGDM graduate student in marketing also having +2 yrs experience in direct sales, now I want to do SEO course so its relevant course for me . because I want to purse my career into online marketing
waiting for your valueble comments and suggestion

Dear Roshan, People misunderstand Online Marketing with Digital Marketing. They aren’t the same. Any Marketing is all about 2 things – The Message & the Channel or Medium. Digital Marketing gives more transparency and accountability to marketing spends – unlike TV & Newspaper Ads any Brand can “measure” what was the reach, engagement with the audience for the Ad. Thats why year on year budgets are shifting from TV & Newspaper to Digital channels. Digital Marketing is the future of Marketing. And the best part is – whether you are a management, Arts or a Engineering student; there is ample room for career growth in all of the 3 disciplines.

Hey
I am a computer science engineer and wish to persue a career in marketing.I have been extensively exploring various avenues in the marketing career.Repeatedly I have been coming across the terms SEO and SEM .These terms are being written about in a very promising light.I am thinking of learning these through a professional course.Are placements directly available if these programs are learnt well and certifications are acquired.Please furnish some more details about the program offered by this academy.

I’m doing SEO in Lucknow and getting only 5.5k per month. I have got total of 10 months experience and worked on the following activity of SEO:
Article submission, press release submission, blog commenting, forum participation, directory submission. What do you have to say about me? Can I get better pay in Lucknow?

Hi Aks! Salary varies from city to city. I can see that you are currently doing the most basic activity(submissions) which is just 5% of the entire scope of Digital Marketing field. Lucknow does have some good companies who are looking to hire trained and certified Digital Marketers. All the best….

This is really great information. I have immense interest in IT related field however due to some challenges i end up in being customer services field. I am a commerce graduate and currently working as an assistant manager – customer services in an insurance company and would like to change my career to SEO field. Could you please guide if this is possible, underlying challenges and what courses should i look for?

People from customer service background are a good fit for Digital Marketing. The reason is your experience in empathizing and understanding your customer’s needs and concerns. We have successful candidates who have come from Call center / BPO background and now are working as Campaign Managers / Asst. Marketing managers.

I am fresher of MCA, i had my training on Java. now i have selected for SEO as a Fresher, but i have many questions. What should i do, i want the development phase where i can make code. and want a good and secure future with a high salary range after 4 to 5 years. so can SEO is suitable for those needs.
and what opportunity i will have after 1 year after joining SEO.

There is tremendous opportunity in the Digital Media space. If you want to be on the Technical side of it – then you can either learn to develop Facebook Viral Apps, Mobile Apps for visitor engagement or learn the 4 popular CMSes so that you can deliver on-page SEO to your clients. Digital Media is a Mix of both Technical and Non-Technical skills and ideal for people who are not interested in hard core programming.

I have done Masters in Commerce and currently working as a SEO Executive in Mumbai, handling 5 projects and getting only 16k per month. I have 6 years of experience and accomplished both SEO trends (On page SEO and Off page SEO). I have also started building PPC campaigns (creating ads and managing) since 6 months. I have apprehension of using google analytics, webmaster, keyword tools, sitemap-xml, etc. What do you think about my experience and my background?

If you are having 6 years of exp – then your current salary is low. I strongly suggest that you go for Google certification. Also, SEO constitutes just 15% of the entire Digital Marketing. Invest some time and money in learning the other 85% and more importantly understand how the Digital Marketing mix works for different industries. Don’t be a generalist, strive to be a specialist in your field.

SIR I AM B.E IT graduate and i got opportunity as a SEO am havin 1 year exp in java….if i join AS a SEO is a good for me or not after 1 or 2 year how much pacage i will get approximately….and tell me the what is the highest pacage after 3 to 4 years….shall i join as a SEO After because am BE ,,,,am really confused…its a secure to join and how much pacages goes after exp..which one is better development or seo as per pacage etc

Thankyou so much….this indeed is of great help…..Well I want to persue a career in digital marketing…would a Msc in digital marketing help??? Would i be reqired to do any other additional course after that????Hw bout if the same degree is from a university of UK…wanted to knw ur expertise…kindly help….regards

Apart from SEO, there are different other “channels” & Tools in Digital Marketing such as – Social Media, Paid Search, Display Advertisement, Analytics, Mobile Marketing, Email Marketing. So the question you should be asking to yourself is – how to leverage one channel with another to best returns on investment. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Hello Learnpact,I am a fresher of 2013 with engineering background,learned Java programming language,also have some basic HTML skills.What is the future and growth of engineering background people in Digital Marketing world? Also please mention what will be salary for them after 2 years of work experience in SEO with a start-up company.

Digital Marketing is a mix of Creativity, Art and Technology. So people from programming background help marketers in web design, landing page creation/ testing, data visualization, social Apps and many other activities. The typical salary for a 2 years old “techno-marketer” would not be less than 30-36k per month in Tier 1 cities.

I have worked in bpo for 3 years. Now i have taken training in seo in kolkata. So , i am fresher in this field and getting a job with starting salary of Rs 4500 to 5000 . So, is this the staring salary in seo ? Please reply . and what is the starting salary in hyderabad.

Hi Imran,
You are presently under-paid. In Chennai, Hyderabad the salary for a Certified Digital Marketer varies between 10k to 18k. Mumbai is the highest paid market for Digital Marketing Professionals in India.

FIrst of all thanks for a brilliant writeup to explain the world of SEO.
I am an IT professional with an experience of 9 years in manual/functional testing. Currently I am in the role of Lead.
I am looking forward to understand if my testing experience will be an added advantage if I decide switching my career to SEO ?

my name is sachin verma. i am from delhi. i am just 12th pass and complete one year professional diploam in web and software engineeing from F-tec Delhi. i want to work on SEO. what you suggest should i go with SEO. by education qualification i am not graduate.

Hello,
Thank you for this great insightful article. I am a B.tech Computer science graduate from leading college and with 4 years experience in software programming in big consumer electronics firm.
I have decided to pursue digital marketing as a career now and would want to know how relevant is my work-ex for this field ? Will i be considered as a fresher or for the experienced payroll? Also of all of SEO, Social Media, Paid Search, Display Advertisement, Analytics, Mobile Marketing, Email Marketing – which one pays the best.
Would love to hear from you.
Thanks.

will i be earning the same salary as compared to software engineer after 10 yr exp i.e 10-12lak per annum ?
.what is the salary growth prospectus after 10yr -15 -yr 20 yr in seo?
i have completed B TECH ,EXP in some industrial companies ,

SIR I AM B.E IT graduate and i got opportunity as a SEO and having 1 year exp in java….if i join AS a SEO is a good for me or not after 1 or 2 year how much package i will get approximately….and tell me the what is the highest pacage after 3 to 4 years….shall i join as a SEO After because am BE ,,,,am really confused…its a secure to join and how much pacages goes after exp..which one is better development or seo as per pacage etc

Its really a nice article on SEO….Can anybody tell me whether SEO uses any programming language…i.e do we have to write any code for SEO? Does it comes under Development?
After 2 years what is the highest salary for an SEO analyst….? can we expect it as a good future..?
Please let me know…

Hi, I’ve heard about SEO from my friend, then i searched it as a career on Google, I read your blog about seo. it’s very interesting and motivational. but still there’s a doubt in my mind that I have 4-5 years experience in different fields I don’t have any knowledge about seo so is it good enough for me to choose seo as a career ?. I am a graduate in arts. no technical background.

Hello Sir, This is really a helpful article, thank you for such a great information. But still I want some suggestions from you.
I am a fresher just completed my MBA in marketing, right now I am getting opportunities in marketing and sales profile. But I am not really interested in field jobs. As I am a B.E (Information technology) in graduation. Will it be any advantage for me making career in SEO? Will there any need of knowledge of coding or programming in this?

Hello. I am in Digital Marketing since 2 years and am earning handsome money as well. But now, I want to switch to mobile technology such as android or windows applications. Is it possible to switch from Digital Marketing to development. If yes, how much salary would I get showing them experience of 2 years in Digital Marketing.

hello,
i was working in tata consultancy services in production support for 3 yrs before taking a sabbatical for child care.Now that my kid has grown up ,i want to pursue my career.but i dont want to go back to support profile because of its erractic timing and i really need a change in my profile since production support is not that promising.I am planning to pursue a course in digital marketing.Can u please let me know what course should i opt for. What are my future prospects?.please guide me through this.I am currently in chennai.
Thanks in advance.

Hi, I’ve completed my UG [B.Tech Computer Engineering] and completed my MBA[Finance & Marketing] 2014 passed out. Is this course [SEO] worth for me.. I mean if i complete this course will i be guaranteed and be placed in a good corporate? Since i’m still searching for the good job!

hello learnpact,
I am a BE fresher and am currently confused whether to take up aa a SEO in a startup or do something else. what will be better in package wise. i meant i still can get into developement jobs too..so which would be the best decision for me…please help

I am a student of B.com final year. i have worked as a content writer in a small company in kolkata for 11 months. Now, i wish to develop my knowledge and choose SEO as my career..kindly suggest me what qualifications i need to have stable job in this field and would it be profitable and secure to choose SEO as my career..??

Hi ,
I have done MBA in finance & risk Management & from 3 years i am working as Team leader in an Insurance broking firm. I am looking for change into marketing field or in an IT sector .
Can you suggest me which course i should opt for & how will it help in career growth.

I am Haritha, I m frm hyderabad.After my Btech(ECE), I joined a news channel website as SEO.
I worked their for 1.9yrs.
All the 1.9 yrs I was doing same basic SEO for same pay.
Now I am looking for better career.
I m dilemma whether to go for Mtech and take up electronics related job or to take up MBA and continue with Digital Marketing

great article highly motivational. i too want to make a career in SEO but i am little confused to choose the profile i mean there are several profiles executive manager trainee sr.SEO etc etc.. what to chose how to chose ?? kindly help me thanx in advance..

I am an MBA from chennai working in media industry for the past 17years…… I am looking for a career in digital marketing and also pursuing courses on SEO and SEM…..at present I am earning 14lakhs per year…. Would I be getting similar scale in digital marketing areas…..please guide…..

I have done b.com throgh correspondence .so is there any scope for me in seo.coz i desperately need a job. somebody sugested me to do this course but i am not really sure about it.I really need your guidance on this

At present am a stay at home mom. I have completed my MBA in 2004 ,after that i worked for 3 years as HR Recruitment executive.But from last 7 years am not working.Now am interested in working again,and looking for some job oriented training/ courses .
Through the net surfing ,i came to know that Digital Marketing (SEO,SME etc. ) have good opportunities in future.

Kindly suggest whether this training would help me to get a job ,since i have this long career gap in my profile.

Hi Sir,
I done MBA In Marketing and finance. Right now am working as a Business Development Executive from past 1.5 years, I wish switch my career from sales to Digital Marketing .so for this I have to do Digital Marketing Course, so Could you please suggest me what tool is better to stat my career in Digital Marketing,, Is learning whole Digital Marketing is Better ? I know its a vast but i am in confusion state whether to go for Complete course or for Particular course.

hello
I have been working as a cabin crew for the last 14 years. I am 37 years old and am looking for a career change. I am really fascinated after reading all the blogs about SEO and am inquisitive if I could make a career in this industry. Please advise and guide me if I am too late to get into it or can I still build a career in this field.
Regards

le is that there are no rules – or at least not written ones. You can work very hard, follow everything that looks like a rule and still success is not coming.
Superb quote on digital marketing.
Shakti bareth

hi
im sidharth. im a btech student. i would like to have a job in the field of digital marketing, i have 5 back papers ,am im i eligible for digital marketing jobs?, what is the qualifications for a job in this field .

its a really nice article. me too stumbled upon seo recently and have been thinking if I can make a career in it. I wanted to know, what role i would play with it or if it is a field, i could make a meaningful career for like 5 or 10 years.
as of now, i know that i like building websites, have flair to learn to build passive income streams from them, help people build websites that make money, write good content. mayb as per ur advice, networking is the only thing i should do.. attend seminars or something.
main problem happens when i am desperate to switch because the current career i am in sucks. kind of eats out the peace in u. but, i can wait.. would working for an seo firm help in achieving any of my goals? only then, it makes sense to move…

I am working with one of top MNC in Administration department since 3.5 years during the work I have complete my PGDM in Marketing field itself & now I am doing the digital marketing certification program from Delhi.

I want to switch my field can you suggest me shall I took some specialization like SEO/SEM or go with complete digital marketing program.

Salary in SEO depend on company to company. I am having 2+ year experience in SEO in Mohali, India. My salary is n 20k. No doubt SEO is great field, I think Delhi and gurgaon is good for salary. Not sure but friends say’s many time. Thanx. Best of luck.

I am fresher of B.TECH, i had my training on Java and selenium software testing. now i have selected for SEO as a Fresher, but i have many questions. What should i do, i want the development phase where i can make code. and want a good and secure future with a high salary range after 4 to 5 years. so can SEO is suitable for those needs.
and what opportunity i will have after 1 year after joining SEO.

Hi learnpact,
Thank you very much for providing such important details on SEO.

I am a graduate in IT but having an experience in BPO industry.As i was searching for best jobs in mumbai , i came across SEO & digital marketing jobs. Of course now, DM looks like most suitable opportunity for one with creative and dynamic skills but what about the competition. As of now need and demand for digital marketing is increasing soon there will be huge competition.
So please suggest me, how it is going to impact on salary packages. Whether the salary will be decreased or not.
Also what is the average salary for SEO freshers in mumbai.please make a reply.Thank you.